Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal

Illinois fire service, join the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal, Camp I Am Me, and Illinois Community Risk Reduction Coalition Taskforce for the first-ever Be Alarmed! Smoke Alarm Installation Statewide Blitz. Join hundreds of departments from across the state to educate residents on the dangers of fire in the home and to ensure there are working smoke alarms properly installed within your community – and what better time than during National Fire Prevention Month.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal is pleased to announce that it is now accepting applications for the Small Equipment Grant.  Grants of up to $26,000 are being provided for the purchase of small firefighting and ambulance equipment.  There is $4 million available for the current funding cycle.  Applicants are reminded that they must be NFIRS compliant for the past two years in order to be considered for a grant.  Applications must be postmarked or electronically submitted to the office by OCTOBER 1, 2024. 

The office will hold open “office hours” on the web in the coming weeks to assist departments with their applications.  Be on the lookout for those dates and times.

The OSFM will be hosting 3 informational sessions to help answer questions regarding our Small Equipment Grant Program application. We will have our CFO available for fiscal questions, Grant Coordinator for general questions, Dale Simpson for tier and other application questions, and our NFIRS staff available for compliance questions. These sessions will be around 1 hour each. 

September is Campus Fire Safety Month and Illinois joins numerous states across the country to raise awareness of fire safety in on and off-campus housing. 

The goal of this month is to create educational opportunities for students to learn the importance of fire safety, ultimately leading to the reduced risk for fires and or death related to on and off campus fires. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), September and October are the peak months for fires in dormitory properties, with cooking being the main cause of these fires. Fires most commonly occur during the evening hours. According to data from the Center for Campus Fire Safety, from January 2000 to April 2022, 94 fatal fires have been documented that occurred on a college campus, in Greek housing, or in off-campus housing within three miles of the campus and claimed 134 lives. An astonishing 94 percent of fatal campus fires examined took place in off-campus housing, with 7 fatalities occurring here in Illinois since 2000.

The Fire Station Construction and Rehabilitation Grant program provides grants up to $350,000 for the construction or rehabilitation of fire stations.

Rules for the program are now finalized and you can view them by clicking here. 

In order to be eligible to receive these grants you MUST have an active registration with SAM.gov and also be registered with the state’s Grantee Portal. Failure to achieve these registrations will make you ineligible to receive a grant so get started as soon as possible as SAM.gov registration can take time. 

The 4th Annual State of Illinois Community Risk Reduction Conference is scheduled for November 1st and will be held at the Illinois Fire Service Institute in Champaign. More information about the conference will be released soon.